Instagram experiment hits the U.S., and your likes may disappear soon

Instagram will soon be expanding one of its biggest and most controversial experiments: hiding the number of likes on a post.

The service will expand the long-running test, which hides like counts from public-facing parts of the app, to the U.S. starting next week, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri announced Friday.

The test is still an experiment, so not all U.S.-based Instagram users will see their like counts disappearing overnight when it goes into effect next week. But to hear Instagram tell it, the move marks of one of the company’s most aggressive steps yet to make its platform a friendlier place for younger users. Read more…